Honest Science and Christian Faith

In his talk at the conference celebrating 30 years of Touchstone, Professor Thomas S. Buchanan addressed the relationship between science and Christianity.  (The text of his talk can be found online at http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=30-05-021-f, but a subscription is required.)

Buchanan pointed out that the media often use the word "scientist" to refer to any researcher, including those in art history, for instance.  This makes it hard to understand the nature of science and what distinguishes it from engineering and other fields.  Buchanan then described actual science:

 The first step is to make observations: What do I see in nature? The observations can come from my own experiences or from thoughts or readings. The next step is to think of interesting questions, such as, Why does a particular pattern occur? Next, I formulate hypotheses that might explain the general causes of the phenomenon I am pondering. Then I develop testable ways to predict whether the hypotheses are true or not. If a hypothesis is true, I can develop a study that will expect a certain type of outcome. Next, I gather data to test my predictions. This allows me to verify or falsify my hypotheses. If they are shown to be wrong, I can refine, alter, expand, or reject my hypotheses and then go back and develop new testable predictions. If the hypotheses are proven to be true, I can then move forward to develop general theories that are consistent with what I have learned. From there, I begin again, closing the loop and applying the new knowledge to other observations in the future.

After describing examples of activities that are not true science, he proposed that Christians should reclaim honest science:

Good scientists think like good theologians do: they believe in universal truth—that what holds true in the lab is true in the world. This is good thinking. Hence, they ought to make good allies for Christians.  We need to train Christian scientists, starting when they are young, teaching them what is real science and what is nonsense. We should also teach students not to venerate scientists, but to respect science and seek after truth, in natural laws as well as theological ones.